How to Stop Dog Whining

Dog whining can be quite annoying. My own dog, at once time, was a terrible whiner. From the very first day he arrived, he had been whining all the time from morning to midnight. After quite a while, his whining started to take a toll on me, in the forms of a countless sleepless night. Until one day, I woke up and decided that was the time to end his whining…

Why Does Dog Whine?

There are many forms of communication that dog uses to communicate, such as barking, growling, and whining.

Dogs whine to show you what they feel the most at the moment.

However, not all whines are created equal…

Why my Dog Whining?

These are some of the most common reasons why do dogs whines:

To get attention.

Feeling stress.

Has low self-confidence.

Feeling excitement

Feeling pain or sick.

1. Attention-Seeking Whining

Being a social animal, dogs love to gain as much as attention as they can from their dog owners.

But, some dogs crave far more attention than others, and this is when your dog’s attention-seeking attitude can becoming a serious problem.

There are several types of dogs that can be affected by this attention-seeking problems: dogs with medical problems, dogs with anxiety problems, dogs with needs not meet, dogs with a history of being re-homed, dogs of certain breeds, dogs undergoing recent changes.

How to Stop Attention-Seeking Whining in Dog

Dogs whine to demand attention, to ask for treats, toys or to play with you.

If you want to stop his whining, you must not succumb to any of his demand. Period.

What I mean by that is, when your dog starts to whine just go away and ignore him. In this way, your dog will learn that any kind of whining won’t be tolerated and rewarded.

When your dog finally is getting silent and quiet, only after then, you are free to give him some of your attention.

After that, your dog will learn that before he can get anything, he needs to behave.

2. Anxious Whining

Anxious whining is a type of whining resulted from panic and stress.

When your dog’s stress level is high he will whine a lot and show panic behaviors such as pacing, circling, and licking.

Before you learn how to stop anxious whining, you need to learn to recognize signs of stress in dogs

7 Signs Your Dog is Stressed

Before you can help your dog coping with his stress, you need to be able to recognize stress signs in dog first. Here are seven common signs of stress and anxiety in dogs.

1. BarkingExcessive barking can be due to confinement, lack of exercise or separation anxiety, which are three major causes of stress in dogs.

3. Decrease in Appetite
If you see a decrease in your dog’s appetite or if your dog suddenly stops eating altogether, there is a good chance your dog is stressed or getting sick.

4. Increased Sleeping
You should be worried if your dog is sleeping more than the usual or seemly overly lethargic. Sleeping more is often a symptom of many dog’s health problems such as diabetes, diarrhea, dehydration, tumor, anemia, and poisoning.

5. Hiding
As a social animal, dogs like to stay in a group. But what if your dog suddenly hiding from other pets or people without any reason? Then, you could be suspicious that your dog might feel stressed.

6. Panting
Panting in dogs is normal activity when they feel hot. However, excessive panting without any apparent cause can become the symptoms of other worst-case scenarios, such as poisoning, chronic illness, injury, and stress.

7. Digestive Problems
Digestive problems such as diarrhea, constipation, or other digestive problems are often the symptoms of stress and anxiety.

What Causes Stress in Dogs

In this article, I have classified three conditions that can cause stress in dogs. Those three conditions are separation anxiety, too much noise and too many people, and stressful situation.

Separation Anxiety

What is separation anxiety?

Separation anxiety is a condition when your dog is afraid to be left alone by his or her owner.

How can you tell if your dog suffers from separation anxiety?

If your dog whines when he is alone accompanied by one of the following symptoms: pacing, panting, excessive drooling, destruction around doors and windows, and urinating or defecating around doors, then there is a great chance your dog suffers from separation anxiety.

How to Stop Separation Anxiety Whining?

To deal with separation anxiety whining, you need to teach your dog that you will always come back home.

To do that, you can pretend to pick up your keys or coat and go out of home for a couple of minutes then come back again.

By doing this simulation then your dog will learn that you won’t leave him and you will always come back home.

Too Much Noise and Too Many People

Just like his owner, there is a time when your dog might want to be alone.

As in the case, when you hold a party in your house and there is so much noise.

In that situation, your dog might become uncomfortable and need to go somewhere alone.

But where he can hide and regain his composure again?

It might be a good idea to provide a safe, quiet room; the room that he can go whenever he feels he wants to, such as your bedroom.

A Stressful Situation

Just as the name implies, this is the situation where dogs feel stressed because of external factors conditions such as lack of water.

There are few things that you can do to make your dog less stressful, such as:

providing enough water to drink

giving new toys to play with

giving blanket before he sleeps

To sum it up, show him that you love him.

3. Appeasement Whining

Appeasement whining is an excessive whining followed by appeasement behaviors.

What does it mean by appeasement behaviors?

According to ASPCA: “appeasement behaviors include holding the ears back, tucking the tail, crouching or rolling over on the back, avoiding eye contact or turning the body sideways to the perceived threat.”

As explained above, dogs give appeasement whining when he meets other people or dogs that he perceives as a threat.

Appeasement is often the result of low self-confidence. If your dog suffers from appeasement whining, then you need to increase your dog’s self-confidence to stop it.

Benefits of Socialization

There are many benefits of socialization that your dog can reap from proper socialization, such as boost dog’s confidence, reduce aggression, increase friendliness, and improve health condition.

The Most Critical Age to Learn Socialization

Socialization lesson must begin from the very first day your puppy arrives in front of your door.

According to research, the best time to socialize puppies is from birth to 16 weeks age.

Why? Because during this period, puppy’s mind works like a sponge for learning things. He will absorb and remember everything that you show him.

The First Step – Socialize Your Puppy in A Safe, Friendly Environment

First, let’s start by socializing your puppy in a safe, friendly environment – the environment that you know well.

Here’s how to do it:

Invite friends and family that you know will love your dog.

Ask friends and family to bring their dogs to play with your puppy. But before you invite their dogs, you should know their dogs first and determine if their dogs are ideal friends for your puppy or not.

Only visit friends or family that you know will get along with your puppy. If they have pets, that would be nice bonuses.

Don’t let your puppy runs up to people or dog that you don’t know.

After 6 Months-Old

Your job next is to encourage your dog to reach the bigger world by encouraging your dog to interact with more people and animals.

1. Encourage Your Puppy to Meet More People

Bring your puppy to meet more people.

It can be as simple as taking your puppy to the nearest dog park. Or let the children around your home to play with him. Or take him to the nearest mini market and let him interact with more people while you are buying a can of soda.

The point is, no matter what you do, you need to encourage your puppy to meet and interact with more people.

2. Introduce Your Puppy to Other Animals

You should bring him to meet and interact with other animals as well.

Does your neighbor have a bird? Great, you should bring your puppy to meet your neighbor’s bird. Does your aunt have a cat? Then you should bring your puppy to meet your aunty’s cat.

A dog that grows up knowing a lot of animals will grow into a confidence and affectionate dog.

A side note:

While it is important to expose your puppy to many animals, your pup’s health should always become your number one priority.

What do I mean by that?

When you bring your puppy to meet other dogs. You can assess quickly whether the dogs that your puppy interact with are healthy or not.

How to assess the other dogs?

Don’t make it complicated, just take a quick glance, and in five minutes, if you are not sure whether the dogs in front of you is healthy or not, that’s the time to bring your dog home.

6. Feeling Pain or Sick

Your dog can whine a lot when he is in pain or getting sick.

When you see some of the following signs in your dog, then that is the time to visit your vet.